This invention relates generally to floating docks for personal watercraft and more particularly concerns a roller assembly facilitating travel of the watercraft hull on the dock during docking and launching of the craft.
It is fairly common practice to incorporate a single concave roller in the stern end of the keel valley of a floating dock for personal watercraft. The roller is oriented with the expectation that the keel of the watercraft will contact the nadir of the concave surface of the roller during docking and launching of the craft. This orientation has some undesirable results. First, the majority of the weight of the watercraft on the dock may be borne by the single roller. Typically, the roller quickly wears out or is damaged or destroyed. Sometimes, however, the keel or hull will be damaged. Second, since the roller is concave, if the keel is not properly aligned with the roller during the docking approach, the hull rather than the keel strikes the roller and the roller does not perform in its intended fashion. Third, since the roller lifts the center of a properly aligned watercraft, the watercraft will list to one side of the dock or even wobble from side to side, depending on the water surface conditions or the distribution of weight on the watercraft. Fourth, with a single roller at the stern of the dock, when the center of gravity of the watercraft moves forward of the roller, the bow exerts the full weight of the watercraft downwardly onto the dock surface and impedes smooth movement of the watercraft onto or from the dock.
An additional problem associated with known floating docks is that the dock material is selected in part for a low coefficient of friction so that the watercraft hull might slide relatively easily on the dock surface. Consequently, the more effectively the dock fulfills the docking function, the more likely the bow of the watercraft is to overshoot its intended stopping point on the dock. This can result in unstable orientation of the watercraft on the dock or in damage to the hull or the dock at their points of impact.
Finally, floating docks are often serially laterally connected so as to accommodate more than one personal watercraft. Known connection systems inconveniently require the use of special tools and generally involve the awkward use of these tools underwater to accomplish the connection.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a roller assembly that receives the hull rather than the keel of the watercraft. Another object of this invention is to provide a roller assembly that protrudes above those ridges along the surface the dock that would otherwise support the hull on the dock. A further object of this invention is to provide a roller assembly that can be used as part of a spaced-apart parallel array of similar assemblies so as to apply the force exerted by the hull to more than one roller assembly. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a roller assembly that can be used in arrays on opposite side of the keel valley so as to support both sides of the hull of the watercraft. It is also an object of this invention to provide a roller assembly that can be used in arrays on opposite sides of the keel valley so as to distribute the weight of the watercraft against the dock to both sides of the hull. Still another object of this invention is to provide a roller assembly with a convex roller so that contact with the watercraft is made at the intended circumference of the roller. A further object of this invention is to provide a stop assembly to brake the sliding motion of a docking watercraft as it is fully received on the dock. Another object of this invention is to provide a coupling suitable to easily serially laterally connect floating docks to each other. And it is an object of this invention to provide a coupling that does not require the underwater use of tools to connect floating docks to each other.